U.S. publishers eager for Chinese infringement data

WASHINGTON, October 26, 2005 -- The Association of American Publishers applaudedr efforts by the U.S. trade enforcement agencies to obtain specific information from the government China regarding copyright infringement cases. Using mechanisms of the World Trade Organization, Chinese authorities have been asked to provide information about infringers that previously had been unavailable. Estimates peg losses to U.S. publishers in China at more than $50 million, including, said Presdient pat Schroeder of the Association of American Publishers, considerable on-campus piracy of academic materials. "Increasing the flow of information will facilitate the implementation of more effective enforcement measures against piracy," said Schroeder.

Association of American Publishers

Publishers sue to stop Google project

WASHINGTON, October 19, 2005 -- The Association of American Publishers filed a lawsuit against Google for plans to digitize the entire collections of five major libraries, 15 million books total, for a massive online index for universal free access. The publishers said their interests in books still under copyright protection, generally 35 to 70 years after publication, would be infringed. The publishers accused Google of seeking to profit from the books without giving publishers a cut. Pat Schroeder, president of the publishers group, said: "The bottom line is that under its current plan Google is seeking to make millions of dollars by freeloading on the talent and property of authors and publishers." MORE The revenue that Google might realize from the Print Library Project is hard to project but conceivably could be a long-term revenue stream in the billions of dollars a year. Access to the the Google-digitized work would be free, but Google, if it follows it usual business practice, would charge advertisers for on-screen links that appear with results from a search. For example, a search for the term "Betty Crocker" might yield thousands of results, ranked by their likely value to the searcher, as well as "sponsored links" to the latest General Mills annual report to shareholders from a stock b roker, recipe books from an antique book dealer, and the Williams-Sonoma online catalog. MORE Google consistently as denied a copyright issue. There would be access to complete works only for books that are in the public domain and no longer coverd by copyright. For works still covered by copyright, Google would provide only snippets generated by a search term. There then would be links to publishers, booksellers and libraries for the full work. Schroeder argues that book publishers want to prevent digital copying and distribution of copyrighted works without permission of the copyright owners. Permissions usually are granted for a fee and usually sharted with authors. "So what's the issue?" Google asks. MORE Schroeder pushes on what she calls the "opt out" issue. Google has offered not to digitize any work that the copyright owner wants excluded. Schroeder says such is turning copyright law on its ear. Her argument: Nothing with an existing copyright can be digitized without the rights-holder's permission. It's a question of which party initikates a decision. So while Google plans to digitize everything unless a copyright-owner opts out, Schroeder says that the initiative to digitize does not belong to Google and that Google should be required to ask permission. MORE The lawsuit was filed only after lengthy discussions broke down between AAP and Google's top management regarding the copyright implications, said Schroeder. The suit seeks a declaration by the court that Google commits infringement when it scans entire books covered by copyright. The suit also seeks a court order preventing further copying without permission of the copyright owner. The suit was filed on behalf of five major publishers -- McGraw-Hill, Pearson Education, Penguin Group, Simon & Schuster and John Wiley. The suit is coordinated and funded by AAP. MORE Schroeder said the suit has "the strong backing" of the publishing industry, an "overwhelming vote of support" by the 20-member AAP Board, which, she noted, is elected from more than 300 member publishing houses. "The publishing industry is united behind this lawsuit against Google and united in the fight to defend their rights," said Schroeder. "While authors and publishers know how useful Google's search engine can be and think the Print Library could be an excellent resource, the bottom line is that under its current plan Google is seeking to make millions of dollars by freeloading on the talent and property of authors and publishers." MORE For the project Google is drawing on academic libraries at Stanford University, Harvard University and the University of Michigan to create the online searchable database. Oxford University and the New York Public Library are also participating but are making available only works in the public domain. Google has indicated its intention to go forward with the unauthorized copying of copyrighted works beginning on November 1. MORE As a way of accomplishing the legal use of copyrighted works in the Print Library Project, AAP proposed to Google that the well-known ISBN numbering system to identify works under copyright and secure permission from publishers and authors to scan these works, Schroeder said. Since the inception of the ISBN system in 1967, a unique ISBN number has been placed on every book, identifying each book and linking it to a specific publisher, she noted. Google flatly rejected this "reasonable proposal," she said. MORE Noting the existence of new online search initiatives that respect the rights of creators, such as the Open Content Alliance involving Yahoo, Hewlett-Packard, Adobe and the Internet Archive, Schroeder said: "If Google can scan every book in the English language, surely they can utilize ISBNs. By rejecting the reasonable ISBN solution, Google left our members no choice but to file this suit." MORE Schroeder acknowledged that the AAP position is not without downsides: "Google Print Library could help many authors get more exposure and maybe even sell more books, but authors and publishers should not be asked to waive their long-held rights so that Google can profit from this venture." She noted that the Authors Guild, which represents mostly trade authjrs, also has filed a suit against the Google project on behalf of its 8,000 members, Background: Publishers: Google moratorium insufficient

COPY- RIGHT TECH- NOLOGY Google Print Library Project Association of American Publishers

HOUGHTON MIFFLIN. Sales grew 9.9 percent to $570.4 million for the third quarter, which ended September 30, compared to a year earlier. Net income was up 26.6 percent. El-hi sales grew 12.7 percent, trade and reference 2.2 percent, college 1.9 percent.

Publishers recommend Hispanic Heritage titles

WASHINGTON, October 11, 2005 -- NEW YORK, October 12, 2005 -- For Hispanic Heritage Month from mid-September to mid-October, the Association of American Publishers has recommended books for teachers, librarians, booksellers and others to celebrate Hispanic culture. The features titles by Latino authors and and titles that address issues of Latino identity and culture: http://www.getcaughtreading.org/pressreleases/ajaleyendo.htm. The list was created by the AAP's three-year0old Publishing Latino Voices for America Task Force.

Association of American Publishers

Same-sex essay going to thematic journal

NEW YORK, October 11, 2005 -- Scholarly publisher Haworth Press reserved itself and announced it will publish a controversial essay by psychologist Bruce Rind that said man-boy sex was considered "the noblest of human relations" in classical Greece. Haworth had scratched a collection that included the Rind essay after an uproar among some conservatives who learned it was coming out, but Haworth now has chosen a middle course. The collection, Same-Sex Desire and Love in Greco-Roman Antiquity and in the Classical Tradition of the West, will be published without the Rind essay, but the essay will appear in in a supplementary volume of the Journal of Homosexuality, also published by Haworth. Bill Palmer, in charge of Haworth's book division, said that after reviewing the situation it seemed that Rind's essay in this volume of historical scholarship was "unnecessarily controversial in the current social and political climate" and that a special issue of the would be a "a much better venue." The special issue will include responjses to Rind's essay from his critics, Palmer said. MORE In September tbe conservative web site WorldNetDaily went ballistic about the forthcoming Haworth book because of the Rind essay. The site glommed onto a line in Rind's four-paragraph advbance summary of the essay that sexual love between men and adolescent boys is a natural product of humanity's evolutionary development. The WorldNetDaily site also didn't much like Rind's statement that the current feminist and psychiatric models of pederasty are inadequate. Two days later Haworth canceled the book. The book, now trimmed of the rind essay, will contain 14 pieces by other scholars. Background: Same-sex essay collection canceled

FREE INQUIRY FREE EXPRESSION HAWORTH PRESS Will now publish but in a thematic journal issue, not in book

Todd Furman (philosophy), McNeese State University, and Mitchell Avila (philosphy), California State University-Fullerton, wrote the second edition of The Canon and Its Critics (McGraw-Hill). Kimberly Weaver (astronomy), Johns Hopkins University, wrote The Violent Universe: Joyrides through the X-ray Cosmos (Johns Hopkins University Press). K. Scott Wong (history) wrote Americans First: Chinese Americans and the Second World War (Harvard University Press).

Please tell us about your latest project: EDITOR More academic authoring people

T&F drops cultural studies icon

NEW YORK, October 1, 2005 -- A pioneer in cultural studies, William Germano, publishing director of Routledge, has been squeezed out in a corporate reorganizatioin directed from London by parent company Taylor &' Francis. Gerrmano, also a Routledge vice president, had been with the scholarly publishing house 19 years. Gemano confirmed his departure, effective September 9, three days after he received the news. Mary MacInnes, vice president for editorial and marketing at Routledge, declined to discuss the decision. Others, however, said that Francis & Taylor was consolidating its editorial structure to London and that Germano was blind-sided byh the decision. He called it a "divorce." MORE Germano had been there at the beginning in establishing cultural studies as a recognized discipline. In 1982 he became the editorial director of Columbia University Press. At Columbia, Germano published Paul Bové and Gayatri Spivak and acquired theorist Paul de Man's last book, The Rhetoric of Romanticism. Later Germano made Routledge a leader in cultural studies. His Routledeg authors included Judith Butler, Cornel West, Marjorie Garber and Andrew Ross. Germano also built a list contemporary criticism, including gay studies, and also social science His social science authors included Donna Haraway and Andrew Ross. MORE At Routledge, Germano saw thick and thin, including a difficult period in the mid-1990s when when cost-cuutting, profit-writing International Thomson owned the company. The venture-capital company Cinven bought Routledge in 1996 and then sold it to Taylor & Francis.

ACADEMIC PUBLISHING TAYLOR & FRANCIS